A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for searching and downloading academic papers from multiple sources. The project follows a free-first strategy: prioritize open and public data sources, support…
Paper Search is an MCP project maintained in the openags/paper-search-mcp repository. The maintainer describes its purpose as “A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for searching and downloading academic papers from multiple sources. The project follows a free-first strategy: prioritize open and public…”. Read the project documentation for the complete scope.
The documented pypi package is paper-search-mcp. The configuration below comes from the maintainer’s example; adapt its paths and account values to your environment.
The example declares PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_UNPAYWALL_EMAIL, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_CORE_API_KEY, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_ZENODO_ACCESS_TOKEN, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_GOOGLE_SCHOLAR_PROXY_URL, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_IEEE_API_KEY. Secret-looking values have been replaced with placeholders. Required and optional labels are shown only when the documentation states them.
Project documentation · Repository · Discovery listing. This profile records the public documentation checked on 2026-10-08.
{
"mcpServers": {
"paper-search-mcp": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"paper-search-mcp"
],
"env": {
"PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_UNPAYWALL_EMAIL": "your@email.com",
"PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_CORE_API_KEY": "YOUR_PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_CORE_API_KEY",
"PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY": "YOUR_PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY",
"PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_ZENODO_ACCESS_TOKEN": "YOUR_PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_ZENODO_ACCESS_TOKEN",
"PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_GOOGLE_SCHOLAR_PROXY_URL": "",
"PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_IEEE_API_KEY": "YOUR_PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_IEEE_API_KEY"
}
}
}
}From the project documentation. Replace placeholders and example paths before connecting.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_UNPAYWALL_EMAIL | Declared in the maintainer’s client configuration. | Check documentation |
| PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_CORE_API_KEY | Declared in the maintainer’s client configuration. | Check documentation |
| PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY | Declared in the maintainer’s client configuration. | Optional |
| PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_ZENODO_ACCESS_TOKEN | Declared in the maintainer’s client configuration. | Optional |
| PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_GOOGLE_SCHOLAR_PROXY_URL | Declared in the maintainer’s client configuration. | Optional |
| PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_IEEE_API_KEY | Declared in the maintainer’s client configuration. | Yes |
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